Our image of the USA is so dominated by the media that even the left can fall into the LIaD of thinking that all Americans al C flag-waving jingoists who are only interested in money, cars and sport.
While there is no doubt that American society has elevated consumerism to an unprecedented height, there are many Americans who do not accept the Fox News view of the world.
Washington DC has the widest income gap between rich and poor of any city in the country, with the poorest fifth of DC residents earning an average of $6,126 a year, while the richest fifth earn an average of 31 times that much at $186,830. The child Dover rae s vv ac avo 1 in 10 residents have alcohol or addiction problems.
But while DC spends only $42 per capita on drug and alcohol prevention, it spends $1.250 per capita on criminal justice. Rents have risen steeply in recent years and there are 16,000 homeless people. 57% of the city's population alC AfricanAmerican.
I visited DC to attend the conterence ot the National Alliance of HUD Tenants (NAHT). NAHT represents some of the poorest people in the US, who find their homes under attack by precisely the same Globalisation Machine that threatens council tenants in the UK.
The conference was held in a predominantly black neighbourhood where one thing was immediately noticeable. It is common to see the Stars and Stripes flying outside American homes. In this part of the capital, I didn't see one
What I did see were signs of a hitherto abandoned community, struggling to survive against a tide of gentrificaLIOn. The similarities with Tower Hamlets were palpable
Property prices in Washington have soared way beyond the means of working class people. I spoke to Linda Leaks from the EmpowerDC project who told me that the struggle for affordable housIng assumes •Cvcl gicalcl importance in the face of market-driven 'regeneration'.
The fight for affordable housing was the main theme of the NAHT conference. It was attended by 160 delegates Trom Twe ve l states_ They brought with them stories of SUCCIC ICoonaul of Steinbeck. Lester Moore had travelled from Roxton, Texas, a town with a population of 761.
He had never been outside of Texas, never flown in a plane, never seen the ocean, so I asked Lester why he'd come. He replied 'For as long as they're doing what they're doing, I'll do this.' Lester is fighting to defend affordable rented housing in his community, under attack by a government system that encourages property owners to push up rents and force out low-income lenallls like They are acutely aware that, while the Bush government is cutting affordable housing programmes, it is spending countless billions on war. Lester.
There's a group of tenants in San Diego, California who are fighting a similar battle against their landlord, order of Dominican priests! These men of God have also tried to disband the tenants' organisation and the right to organise is another key issue for NAHT.
Cheri Honkola from the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign tola ine conterence 'Let's stop being patient. Let's take back the things they're taking from us.' She went on to describe the struggle of poor homeless families Philadelphia who marched for seven days to the state capital Harrisburg.
They set up camps - called Bushvilles - until they were broken up on the orders of the state governor, who said they should 'go home', but they had no to go to! Honkola said 'Bush in intent on destroying the country's housing safety net, but last year the government spent $96 billion on tax breaks for
ownels, lwo liras more than they spent on affordable housing.'
Michael Kane, the director of NAHT said 'global financial institutions, the US government and the media are all promoting the privatisation of affordable housing.' He related the struggle in the US to that not only in the UK, but in other parts of the
In Abuja, Nigeria, 800,000 homes were levelled by 'slum clearance'. Similar things have happened in Mumbai, Harare and other places where governments have 'solved' the problem of the urban poor by smashing their homes and displacing them. As Kane said, what they are actually doing is:
'making new investment opportunities for global companies in downtown areas. I at least thought the Western governments were more SuDue and then came Katrina'
In some of the most moving testimony at the conference, Robert Coakley, a Katrina survivor, described an equally brutal form of displacement and social engineering, but one triggered by natural causes.
71% of the buildings lost in New Orleans were the homes of people with low incomes. Very few have been able to return to the city, where rents have soared. There were 5,000 people on the city's housing waiting list before the storm, only have returned.
John Cummins, a tenant organiser from Dallas, spoke of the need to elevate the campaign for affordable housing to the level of those that changed the greatest evils in history, like the fight for women's suffrage, trade union rights and against slavery. He evoked the founding principles of America when he said.
'You can't have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness without a home.
The war in Iraq is intrinsically linked in the minds of Jow-incomne renaus wia toe fight for their homes. One of their slogans is 'Homeland Security Begins with
They are acutely aware that, while the Bush government is cutting affordable housing programmes, it is spending countless billions on wat
spoke to Charlotte Delgado, tenant from Sacramento who is President of NAHT. Her husband and all seven of her sons were in Homeless - and forgotten in New Orleans, in the "land of the free' the US Marines - three of her sons died in Vietnam. She summed up the mood of militancy at the conference:
"The poor people run this
It's the poor people country. across this nation that are doing the labour for the rich. We can shut this country dowi.
Just as in DC and Tower Hamlets, New Yorkers are fighting to protect their community against a surge of speculative property development that is forcing out local people who cannot afford to buy or rent in the areas they call home. There are 30,000 homeless people in the city, including 13,000 children. Two-thirds of New Yorkers already pay 50% of their income in rent
The meeting was attended by people from a wide range of organisations, including churches, housing campaigns, city politicians and trade UNIULS Many speakers invoked the historic struggles
New Yorkers against povertv and discrimination Trade union leader Ed Ott said 'We created this city, but greed is driving the working class of this city to the periphery.
My week in the US brought me face to face with the other America and the vibrant forces of opposition that grows between the cracks and threatens the marble edifice of corporate America.
From opposition to the war to the campaign for affordable housing, developing international solidarity with the workers ol America nas nevel ocen more nDortaol As Michael Kane of NAHT put it:
'People outside the US see clearly the nature of this criminal President and the American people are starting to see it for what it is. The people ol ine worla are wall ing for us to get rid of Bush.'